You can’t prevent cancer, but you can prevent late diagnosis. This is one of the key missions of CoppaFeel!. Their team aims to educate people on getting to know their boobs and this is why I have decided to run my first half marathon and raise 500 euros for CoppaFeel!. Kris Halenga, the founder, was diagnosed at the age of 23, which hit me very personally. She was the same age as I am now. It can happen to anyone of us.

“Too many women, and men, die of breast cancer due to late detection. Currently over 2000 cases are diagnosed at stage 4 each year – there is no stage 5.
This is unnecessary.”

I first heard about CoppaFeel! through my university’s Uni Boob Team when I was an undergraduate at the University of Surrey. The UBTs are a vital part of CoppaFeel!’s work in sharing the message about boob awareness to young people at an earlier stage.

While my ultimate dream is to see CoppaFeel! and the Uni Boob Teams grow internationally, especially in Belgium, I hope that my fundraising will support them in their current efforts in the UK as well as spread the Boob message through our online world.

If you’d like to find out more about CoppaFeel! follow this link here: What we do

How can your donations help?

Every donation, big or small, can help in different ways:

£2/€2.7 enables Coppafeel! to send SMS reminders to 40 people every month.

£50/€68 can help them send one of their Boobettes to raise awareness in a school or work place.

£1000/€1372 can help cover the costs of being at a music festival to target around 50,000 people.

Fundraising on JustGiving
I have decided to fundraise through JustGiving as it is an incredibly secure and fast way to donate. The money goes directly to the charity which essentially cuts costs so that donations can have the most effect.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could support CoppFeel!, no matter how big or small a donation, through my fundraising page here:

If you are unable to donate, sharing the JustGiving fundraising page will not only take just a second, but it can also help spread the CoppaFeel! message and remind young people to get to know their boobs!

Dice the mushrooms, chop up the spring onion and finely dice both the garlic cloves and ginger. Cut your block of tofu into approximately 1cm cubes and leave out on a plate. This allows for enough time to let water to seep out.

Set a wok on high-heat and melt the coconut oil. Check whether it is ready to get sizzling by throwing in a tiny piece of your garlic.

Throw in the garlic, ginger and spring onion and stir-fry for 3-4 mins or until the ginger and garlic has had time to brown. Throw in your mushrooms (*optional: add grounder pepper+ cayenne chilli pepper) and cook for a further 5 mins on a medium heat.

Add your cubed tofu into your wok and be careful to not stir it, but to scoop from underneath and toss it as you mix it up. This way your tofu will not break too much! Silken tofu is a lot softer as it is drained through silk, whereas cotton tofu is a lot harder and is more commonly used in stir fries. Keep on a medium/low heat

I like to prepare the sauce in a separate pot as it’s a lot easy to taste test and adjust, before it gets mixed in with the ingredients in the wok. Heat the soup stock, add the soy sauce and tomato passata. Now is an excellent time to dilute the sauce if it is too salty.

Add the sauce to the wok and stir in gently as to not break the tofu cubes. Before it comes to a boil, add the corn or potato starch gradually – depending on you preferences you may like to have a thicker or more watery sauce.

Serve with a rice of your choice!

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One of my favourite restaurants in Leuven is the Loving Hut Veganerie on Rector De Somerplein, just behind the bus stop. With it being just a 2 min walk from Grote Markt where the town hall is, it is such a perfect spot to grab lunch or sit down for a snack of baked goods.

If I’m craving a burger, then this is hands down my go-to place as it has 10 to choose from, which I’ve put in a table below. I usually go for the Cheezy and a side of crispy nuggets. Now let me tell you, if you were a huge nugget fan before deciding to switch to a plant based diet well then look no further – these crispy nuggets are THE BEST. If you are not too keen on having a burger when you pop in for a meal there are plenty of other options such as salads (6.5 – 15 euros), soups (3.5 euros) and snacks (3.5 – 7.9 euros).

The food aside, Loving Hut Veganerie also sells different foodstuffs from vegan cheese to Sunwarrior protein powder to Pukka organic tea, as well as their homemade veganaise (5 euros/half-litre tub).

Loving Hut Veganerie burgers (6 – 7.5 euros)

Practical info

25 mins from Brussels to Leuven (+10 mins walking from Leuven station to Loving Hut Veganerie)

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About a year ago, I had just returned from an amazing 10 days of travelling around the southern Spanish region of Andalusia which started off in Granada and, boy, had I taken a lot of photos. This post, along with the images, had previously been published on the old blog and it has now been adapted for this site.

Ever since I started taking only my phone with me on holiday and Christine Xuan had taken charge of shooting beautiful outfit photos for KARINA blog, my DSLR and 85mm lens had been severely neglected so it was great to finally get back into using them both as well as swapping lenses throughout the trip with my boyfriend. Hooray for both of us being Nikon people!